Improvement in the utilization of the dust or culm of anthracite coal as fuel



"UNITED Srarns PATENT LORENZO "L GBOUN SE, OF KINGSTON, NEW YORK.

' IMPROVEMENT IN THE UTILIZATION OF THE DUST 0R CULM 0F ANTHRACITE COAL AS FUEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 222,466, dated December 9, 1879 application filed November 15, 1879.

full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Whereas the undersigned did by deed of assignment before issue, on record in the Patent Office, secure on the 20th of April, 1875,

and 5th of December, 1876, Letters Patent viz., 162,362, 162,363, and,185,()90-for an improvement in process and machinery for the manufacture of artificial fuel, under which patents he has since been continually engaged in said-manufacture; and whereas the practical manipulationof .anthracitecoal dust or culm has demonstrated that, owing to its inhcrent'vitreous character, it is difficult to so combine it with any fusing material so far tried as to prevent attrition to the machinery in the manufacture or decrepitation in combustion, thus failing to secure the great calorific power absolutely contained in its excessive carbon 7 Now be it known that I have devised an improvement in said process which overcomes said difficulty, and which improvement relates especially to the more successful utilization of the culm or dust of anthracite coal as a fuel, and'I respectfully ask the issue of Letters Patent of the United States covering the same.

The improvement which I claim as my in- I mention isdescribed as follows:

To the proportions of the volume of coal-tar i pitch and anthracite-coal dust, as heretofore used, which are usually about ten per cent. of g pitch to ninety per cent. of dust. I add from :tifteen to thirty per cent.though I do not plimit myself to these exact proportions-of the slack or dust of bituminous or semi-bitumi- 111ous' coal, which combination is effected in the diameter, or in any other suitable manner, into the same hopper or chute with the pitch, where the two materials are first thoroughly mixed, and from which they move rapidly-into a halfopen cylinder orsemicircular mixer, or any other suitable vessel for mixing, where they meet the volume of anthracite dust or culm, and all the materials are thus thoroughly mixed in the dry state. They next pass into a longitudinal steam-jacketed cylinder, where they are subjected to fusion by steam superheated to a temperature of from 500 to 7 00 This high heat not only melts the pitch, but volatilizes the lighter elements in the bituminous or semi-bituminous slack, which assists the bindin g effect of the pitch. The materials are then taken by an elevator'from the mouth of this cylinder, carried up and dumped into another and preferably upright cylinder, where afurther fusion and mixture take place,where more steam of the same or lesser temperature is added,it'necessary, and from which the mass of materials thus prepared passes to the compression or molding table, where they are compressed into cubes, spheres, or parallelograms. The addition of thebituminous or semi-bituminous dust or slack gives, by its softer nature and its tarry, oily, and paraffiue elements, increased firmness and tenacity to the product, and also increases the coking effect in combustion, so that the anthracite dust or culm is thoroughly consumed, and its high calorific; power completely utilized.

WVhat I claim as my invention is- The combination, by process as above .described, of the coal-tar pitch, slack, or dust of bituminous or semi-bituminous coal with the dust or culm of anthracite coal, under the conditions of dry mixture, subsequent high heat, mixture, and compression producing a coking or semi-coking fuel, substantially as described and set forth 5 and I also claim the fuel as thusproduced.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 15th-day of November, 1879.

LORENZO L. GROUNSE. Witnesses: L. DEANE,

G. S. DUBors. 

